My wish is that the reader should in his own pleasure quite forget the editors labour, which too has been pleasant: that, standing aside, I may believe this book has made the Muses access easier when, in the right hour, they come to him to uplift or to console.

ArthurQuiller-Couch

The Oxford Book of English Verse

12501900

Chosen and Edited by A. T. Quiller-Couch

From Arthur Quiller-Couchs 1919 Introduction to this extensive collection: For this Anthology I have tried to range over the whole field of English Verse . To bring home and render so great a spoil compendiously has been my capital difficulty. It is for the reader to judge if I have so managed it as to serve those who already love poetry and to implant that love in some young minds not yet initiated.